Dead Reckoning: A Pirate Voyage with Captain Drake

Emmet, a fifteen-year-old orphan, learns hard lessons about survival when he sails from England in 1577 as a servant aboard the Golden Hind -- the ship of his cousin, the explorer and pirate Francis Drake -- on its three-year circumnavigation of the world.

Long Synopsis:

After the death of his foster father, young Emmet is invited by a previously unknown cousin, explorer Francis Drake, to be a servant aboard the "Pelican" for a trading expedition. Emmet soon learns how a thirst for wealth can turn men into monsters--including himself.